Santa Monica Press

Creating Q*bert and Other Classic Video Arcade Games takes you inside the video arcade game industry during the pivotal decades of the 1980s and 1990s. Warren Davis, the creator of the groundbreaking Q*bert, worked as a member of the creative teams who developed some of the most popular video games of all time, including Joust 2, Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, and Revolution X.

In a witty and entertaining narrative, Davis shares insightful stories that offer a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like to work as a designer and programmer at the most influential and dominant video arcade game manufacturers of the era, including Gottlieb, Williams/Bally/Midway, and Premiere.

Likewise, the talented artists, designers, creators, and programmers Davis has collaborated with over the years reads like a who’s who of video gaming history: Eugene Jarvis, Tim Skelly, Ed Boon, Jeff Lee, Dave Thiel, John Newcomer, George Petro, Jack Haeger, and Dennis Nordman, among many others.

The impact Davis has had on the video arcade game industry is deep and varied. At Williams, Davis created and maintained the revolutionary digitizing system that allowed actors and other photo-realistic imagery to be utilized in such games as Mortal Kombat, T2, and NBA Jam. When Davis worked on the fabled Us vs. Them, it was the first time a video game integrated a live action story with arcade-style graphics.

On the one-of-a-kind Exterminator, Davis developed a brand new video game hardware system, and created a unique joystick that sensed both omni-directional movement and rotation, a first at that time. For Revolution X, he created a display system that simulated a pseudo-3D environment on 2D hardware, as well as a tool for artists that facilitated the building of virtual worlds and the seamless integration of the artist’s work into game code.

Whether you’re looking for insights into the Golden Age of Arcades, would like to learn how Davis first discovered his design and programming skills as a teenager working with a 1960's computer called a Monrobot XI, or want to get the inside scoop on what it was like to film the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Aerosmith for Revolution X, Davis’ memoir provides a backstage tour of the arcade and video game industry during its most definitive and influential period.

Since forming in 1889, Orange County, California has become famous all over the world for being home to such popular attractions as Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, and some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. But there are also many other places that helped establish the county as not just a popular tourist destination, but also home to countless cultural landmarks that served the local communities for generations.

Stretching across the 34 cities that comprise “The OC,” Lost Landmarks of Orange County brings back fabulous memories of music venues, restaurants, theaters, theme parks, attractions, and more.

Everybody knows the aforementioned Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, but Orange County was also home to Lion Country Safari, the California Alligator Farm, the Buffalo Ranch, Japanese Village and Deer Park, Movieland Wax Museum, the Orange County International Raceway, and many other large-scale attractions.

Concert venues including the Golden Bear, Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, and the Cuckoo’s Nest all featured some of the biggest names in rock and roll and popular music. Tiki bars, airports, drive-in movie theaters, themed restaurants . . . these were the places where generations of OC natives and visitors from around the world created memories that would last a lifetime.

Today, all of these locations are gone, but utilizing firsthand accounts, rare photos, artifacts, and other resources, Lost Landmarks of Orange County keeps the colorful memories of Orange County’s past alive.

The Thrilling and Emotional Memoir from Endurance Horse Racing Legend Sanoma Blakeley

Chasing Dreams: The True Story of the Youngest Female Tevis Cup Champion is the incredible, action-packed memoir of Sanoma Blakeley’s 2019 Tevis Cup championship, won while riding her beloved horse Goober, and the tale of how she became the youngest woman to ever become a Tevis Cup champion. Beginning her endurance riding career at the age of seven, Blakeley writes about the years of training and teamwork required to win the most challenging and famous 100-mile horse race in the world aboard a horse she had originally acquired for free off of Craigslist.

Blakeley places readers on the ride with her so that they can experience the thrill of the most exciting horse endurance race in existence. Blakeley and Goober survive narrow mountain trails winding through the Sierra-Nevadas, containing over 19,000 feet of elevation gain; three steep, grueling canyons; crossing the shoulder-high American River; riding at night with only the light of the moon to guide them; temperatures that soared over 115 degrees; and, most excitingly, the final neck-and-neck sprint to the finish against a four-time Tevis Cup champion and world class competitor after 100 miles of some of the most rugged mountain trails in the world.

When Blakeley and Goober cross the finish line just a few feet ahead of their competition and Blakeley becomes the youngest woman in history to win the Tevis Cup, a lifetime of hard work that began when the author started training as a small child and who had long dreamed of winning the Tevis Cup was finally rewarded. Chasing Dreams contains action, heartwarming twists, and an epic ending that will leave readers in tears.

Role of a Lifetime is the story of the crucial role Larry Farmer played on teams that won three NCAA titles for UCLA under Coach John Wooden. Farmer’s record at UCLA was 89–1, the greatest winning percentage in NCAA history. (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was 88–2.)

Role of a Lifetime also details how Farmer, a self-taught player from the playgrounds of Denver, managed to secure a full scholarship, make the varsity team as a sophomore, and ultimately become the head basketball coach at UCLA at the age of 30—the first black head coach for any sport at UCLA.

The book chronicles the reactions of black leaders to his role as the first black head coach, as well as the inside politics that led him to resign after three years as coach, just days after accepting a two-year extension. Farmer also shares new insights about UCLA athletic booster Sam Gilbert and his role in the team’s NCAA probation.

Farmer’s insider perspective during UCLA basketball’s most fabled period, combined with his natural ability to relate entertaining and informative anecdotes about legendary figures such as John Wooden, Bill Walton, Jamaal Wilkes, Reggie Miller, and many other famous players and coaches from throughout the world of college basketball, makes Role of a Lifetime a must-have for all Bruin fans and fans of basketball everywhere!

Inventing Paradise: The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles traces the improbable rise of Los Angeles through the prism of six visionaries who had outsize influence on the city’s growth: Phineas Banning, Harrison Gray Otis, Henry Huntington, Harry Chandler, William Mulholland, and Moses Sherman.

In the late 1870s, Los Angeles was a violent, dusty, 29-square-mile pueblo with a few thousand souls, largely unchanged since its founding in 1781. By 1930, its size had swelled to within 96% of its current 468 square miles, housing a staggering 1.2 million people. In just 50 years, L.A. had joined the ranks of other world-class cities.

In the tradition of Mike Davis’s classic work City of Quartz, Paul Haddad (Freewaytopia and 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.) debunks many myths about the City of Angels with a wildly entertaining narrative that sheds new light on the fascinating birth of modern Los Angeles. Power came from a select few, whose triumphs, scandals, and correspondence are well documented in Inventing Paradise, along with other little-known facts about L.A. history, including:

L.A.’s Landmark Restaurants: Celebrating the Legendary Locations Where Angelenos Have Dined for Generations follows in the footsteps of George Geary’s now classic and critically acclaimed book, L.A.’s Legendary Restaurants.

L.A.’s Landmark Restaurants is an illustrated history of over 50 famous Los Angeles restaurants from throughout the 20th century that were not featured in Geary’s first book. The focus in L.A.'s Landmark Restaurants is on restaurants where Angelenos—rather than celebrities—have been dining for generations.

Along with recipes made famous by each restaurant, L.A.’s Landmark Restaurants contains profiles of such legendary eateries as Cole’s, Philippe the Original, Pacific Dining Car, The Original Pantry Café, The Victor Hugo, Canter’s Delicatessen, Sportsmen's Lodge, Mocambo, Nate ’n Al’s, The Smoke House, Tail o’ the Pup, The Apple Pan, Valentino, and dozens of other beloved establishments in this beautiful tribute to Los Angeles and its historic restaurants.

Each location profiled is illustrated with a collection of historic and contemporary photographs and ephemera—such as menus, matchbooks, and advertisements—and every entry features a short history of the restaurant, entertaining anecdotes, and such details as the year of opening, address, phone number (both original and current), type of cuisine, and the name of the restaurant's founder.

Recipes made famous by the restaurant, updated for today’s cook and kitchen by Chef Geary, will satisfy anyone seeking to replicate their favorite dish from these legendary restaurants and their chefs.

Truly a love letter to Los Angeles and its world famous cuisine, L.A.’s Landmark Restaurants is sure to bring back treasured memories and knowing smiles from anyone who has dined at these fabled establishments.

Steve Adelman’s humorous and engaging memoir reflects on his years as the director and owner of some of the world’s most popular nightclubs, including the Roxy, Limelight, Tunnel, and Palladium in the heyday of clubs in New York City during the 1980s and 1990s, followed by Avalon (Boston, Hollywood, NYC, and Singapore locations), and the New Daisy Theatre in Memphis. Nocturnal Admissions is a timely, unconventional look at one of pop culture’s most outwardly glamorous, yet misunderstood industries, bringing the reader backstage into the world of nightlife at its highest level.

Wearing the multiple hats of ringmaster, entrepreneur, guidance counselor, multimillion-dollar dealmaker, and music soothsayer, Adelman chronicles an improbable journey from small town to big city, filled with a cast of characters he could never have imagined: People named Hedda Lettuce, Jenetalia, Maxi Min, and Jiggy, who collide with and around the likes of Jack Nicholson, Bruce Willis, Sir Richard Branson, Leonardo DiCaprio, RuPaul, Rudy Giuliani, and Snoop Dogg, among many, many others.

Navigating city crackdowns, crazed partners, and cultural differences, Adelman relates how he watched his Nana out-dance an ex-NFL lineman, was chastised by Bob Dylan, launched the EDM cultural movement, helped created the “mash-up” with Perry Farrell, butted heads with Jerry Falwell, rang in the New Year with Matt Damon’s mother, leveraged porn star Jenna Jameson, relied on advice from felons, almost pancaked Prince, and built the world’s most lavish nightclub.

Nocturnal Admissions is a hilarious, adrenaline-filled ride through the peak decades of the world's most famous nightclubs and nightlife scenes.

The author of Ventura and Zelzah follows up that critically acclaimed debut novel with Ventura and Winnetka, a stand-alone work that furthers the adventures of Douglas and his friends as they come of age in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley in the late 1970s.

As seniors in high school, the gang spends their final year before college practicing crazy car stunts, getting high, obsessing about girls, passionately listening to the great rock and roll of the ’60s and ’70s, arguing about the Dodgers and the Lakers, and partying at the prom in powder blue tuxedos.

From a West Hollywood porn theater to a punk rock club in Chinatown to the site of the Manson murders, the Valley boys also begin to spread their wings as they explore the city of Los Angeles, located “just over the hill” from where they live.

Like Ventura and Zelzah, the stand-alone Ventura and Winnetka is a funny, poignant, and nostalgic coming-of-age tale about the relationships of teenagers on the verge of adulthood. The re-creation of the Valley culture of the late 1970s is palpable and magical.

WINNER OF THE 2024 GRATEFUL AMERICAN BOOK PRIZE FOR BEST YOUNG ADULT HISTORICAL FICTION!

Ray Elias is a precocious but withdrawn sixteen-year-old growing up in an affluent suburb of New York in the early sixties. Numbed by the assassination of President Kennedy, Ray chances upon a TV documentary about the most recent presidential election and is drawn to the ebullient senator from Minnesota, Hubert Humphrey, who unsuccessfully challenged John Kennedy for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960.

With the senator as his newfound hero, Ray fashions a mission for himself: make Humphrey Lyndon Johnson’s running mate in 1964. To the amazement of his friends and cynical father, Humphrey learns of Ray’s plan to lobby the delegates and, impressed with his sincerity and ambition, takes Ray under his wing.

Ray enters college as the senator is elected vice president, but the relationship unravels when Humphrey becomes an ardent public supporter of the Vietnam War, despite his personal belief in the war’s futility. As the tension between them grows and their bond deteriorates, Ray is devastated by his loss of faith in Humphrey. However, he finds consolation for his disappointment in Ruth, a spirited classmate from the other side of the tracks who teaches him understanding and empathy.

As Ray matures to young adulthood he reconnects with Humphrey—who has by now achieved a political revival and is mulling a fresh run at the presidency—and the two reconcile after Humphrey finally acknowledges his breach of Ray’s trust, and Ray forgives his former mentor.

Loosely based on the author’s real-life relationship with Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Humphrey and Me portrays the often highly emotional journey that comes with embracing our heroes, while set against the backdrop of the tempestuous political eras of the 1960s and ’70s.

Between 1943 and 1944, nearly 50,000 Bulgarian Jews were rescued from the Holocaust, including thousands who had already been rounded up and put on trains bound for death camps in Poland. Dominic Carrillo’s suspenseful novel Acts of Resistance is based on the true story of this incredibly heroic effort by the citizens of Bulgaria. In Carrillo’s powerful account, he skillfully weaves together a thrilling tale told by three alternating teenage narrators: Misho, Peter, and Lily.

Misho, an 18-year-old Jewish boy, is a prominent archbishop’s driver, hiding his identity while helping his boss directly challenge the Bulgarian government’s pro-Nazi policies.

Peter, 17, is determined to save his Jewish neighbors by confronting parliament members in the capital, then taking up arms to fight with a partisan rebel communist group.

Lily, 19, works for the collaborationist government office in charge of evicting and deporting Jews to concentration camps. When she witnesses the evil results of her desk job, Lily becomes a spy who leaks information to Jewish community leaders in order to prevent further atrocities.

As the characters’ lives become more endangered and their unsung roles in saving Jewish citizens are revealed, the reader is treated to a tension-filled adventure surrounding one of the greatest unknown acts of heroism associated with the Holocaust. Acts of Resistance will have you on the edge of your seat as Misho, Peter, and Lily face and overcome extremely perilous situations, ultimately triumphing as they each help to lead the people of Bulgaria to rise up against the Nazis and save their nearly 50,000-strong Jewish population from extinction.

WINNER OF THE 2023 GRATEFUL AMERICAN BOOK PRIZE FOR BEST YOUNG ADULT HISTORICAL FICTION!

FINALIST FOR THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARD!

Mattie and the Machine is a fictionalized yet historically accurate account of Margaret E. Knight’s fight to obtain recognition as a 19th century female inventor (she would eventually be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006). This entertaining tale is filled with romance, competition, and treachery, and features a feisty and brilliant female heroine who excels in STEM-related tasks.

In 1868 New England, fifteen-year-old Mattie is a mechanic in Columbia Paper’s all-female bag division. With paper bag sales booming after the Civil War, her boss expands the division by hiring men from his old Army regiment, including the mechanic Frank. Sparks instantly fly between Mattie and Frank, and their budding romance has her walking on air—until she discovers Frank’s pay is higher than hers. In fact, all the men receive thirty percent more than their female counterparts. The boss’s rationale? Men are inherently better with machines.

Determined to prove him wrong, Mattie proposes a bet: If she can build a machine that fully automates their paper-bag-making process, the women will receive equal pay. If she fails, she’ll resign as mechanic. The boss accepts, with one condition: Frank will also build a machine, and Mattie’s must beat his.

Mattie’s determination as she struggles with the technical challenges she encounters while taking her invention from initial concept to working prototype—in addition to the overwhelming prejudice she faces in the workplace and, eventually, the courtroom—makes her story an inspiring feminist narrative. Mattie and the Machine also includes an appendix with Margaret E. Knight’s actual patent application and drawings for her Bag Machine.

Can surfing change your life? For Ellie, it most certainly does. Vezna Andrews’ debut novel is set in 1980s Southern California, where sixteen-year-old Ellie discovers herself through her love of surfing. Born and raised in New York City, Ellie’s world is turned upside down when her father unexpectedly dies and her mother sends her to Manhattan Beach, California to live with her Aunt Jen and her Uncle Charlie—both avid surfers.

Ellie’s new home is a sharp contrast to the loft in New York City’s garment district where she grew up. Heartbroken about her dad, and worried about her mom, who drinks too much, Ellie doesn’t fit in with the preppie girls at her new California high school, who eventually gang up on and bully her. Thankfully, with the encouragement of Aunt Jen and Uncle Charlie, Ellie discovers surfing, which becomes her passion and her refuge.

While surfing California’s wild coast, Ellie experiences surfing's spiritual, healing qualities, including magical encounters with wild dolphins, whales, and sea lions. Eventually, Ellie finds a group of like-minded souls who show her what true friendship is—and she experiences first love. Though her relationship with her mom grows strained, Ellie becomes close to Aunt Jen, Uncle Charlie, and their community of surfers. Through surfing, Ellie develops the confidence and strength needed to navigate her own path in life—surfing literally saves her.

A tale of teenage friendships set in 1970's suburban Los Angeles

In the haze of a hot San Fernando Valley summer in 1970’s Los Angeles, Douglas and his friends—Hank, Weddy, and Ronnie—struggle with their awkward teenage years during a confusing and highly permissive era. Weed and alcohol are regularly available, and most of the boys freely partake as they each navigate their own family dramas at home. Meanwhile, Douglas must also sort through the ups-and-downs of his relationship with his not-quite-girlfriend, Natalia.

When not in the swimming pool trying to beat the intense Valley heat, Douglas and his friends spend their summer vacation taking the RTD into Westwood to see Jaws, watching the Fourth of July fireworks at Balboa Park, seeking thrills at Magic Mountain, checking out the head shop and the turquoise jewelry at The Sixth Chakra, eating hot dogs and facing Koufax in the batting cage at Flooky’s, and playing plenty of basketball.

Ventura and Zelzah is a funny, poignant, and nostalgic coming-of-age tale of teenage friendships in a blissfully unhurried, pre-digital era.

In Pork Belly Tacos with a Side of Anxiety, Yvonne Castañeda shares vibrant stories of her childhood growing up in Miami as the daughter of humble immigrants from Mexico and Cuba . . . and how she came to develop an unhealthy relationship with food.

To help ease her mami’s nervios, Yvonne becomes a perfectionist from a young age, achieving high grades at school and mastering the piano. But as her Cuban family members openly make comments about her awkward desarrollo, or puberty, Yvonne enters a new phase of self-consciousness that begins her obsession with weight.

She abandons the piano for the high school cheerleading team, and reinvents herself, becoming both skinny and popular. However, as a first-generation adolescent born in the United States, Yvonne wrestles with the conflict between the cultural norms of her Hispanic/Latino heritage and American societal expectations.

Plagued by doubt and low self-esteem, Yvonne begins a vicious cycle of weight gain and loss, as she battles Bulimia Nervosa. Beleaguered by feelings of guilt, shame, and inferiority, she develops anxiety, depression, and a reliance on dangerous coping mechanisms.

Ultimately, sage advice from her dear abuela in Guadalajara, Mexico, guides Yvonne to a realization that shifts her perspective of herself and the purpose of her life, providing a foundation for inner peace, and la solución to her past struggles.

The Revenge of Joe Wild is a young adult novel about a semi-literate 12-year-old boy growing up in mid-19th-century Southern Illinois, an outsider who can’t fit in with the norms of society. When Joe is accused of murdering his friend Ervan Foster, he flees the authorities and goes on the run, vowing to one day return as an adult, find out who the real killer is, clear his name, and avenge Ervan’s death.

While on the run, Joe has many funny, dangerous, and eye-opening adventures which include joining the Union army and fighting in the American Civil War. When the war ends, Joe returns to his hometown, an armed and battle-tested 16-year-old. He confronts his accusers, but when Joe finds out the truth behind Ervan’s murder, he makes peace with the man who falsely accused him, as well as with himself.

In the great tradition of such 19th-century American authors as Mark Twain, James Fennimore Cooper, and Stephen Crane, The Revenge of Joe Wild is a humorous, tense, action-filled novel set against the dramatic backdrop of the Civil War, with themes involving racism, sexuality, and misinformation that are just as relevant in the 21st century as they were during the time of Joe Wild.

Beautiful and spirited Daniela dreams of becoming a doctor while growing up in Yedinitz, Romania in 1940, but as a Jew, she is barred from higher education. Her mother, who is the dressmaker to a local countess, hires her a tutor, the rebellious and precocious Mihail. The two soon begin a passionate romance, unable to resist the powerful love and attraction they share.

When the Nazis invade Romania, Daniela and Mihail’s lives are forever changed: Mihail escapes and joins the partisans; Daniela is captured and sent on the notorious Transnistrian Death March, where Jews are starved, murdered, and robbed. Daniela is brutally raped by Romanian soldiers, and trapped by their depravity, she watches helplessly as her people are destroyed.

Daniela’s life is spared when her beauty catches the eye of a Romanian Iron Guard commander, Major Dragulescu, who forcibly takes her as his concubine and also sends her to nurse Romanian soldiers in the field hospital, where Daniela cannot help feeling pity at the suffering that surrounds her.

One night Mihail appears with a troop of partisans on a mission to assassinate two key Nazis visiting the major. What happens next is both heroic and tragic, and results in Daniela’s escape with the partisans, who train her in sabotage and battle tactics. She throws herself into living on the run behind enemy lines, and transforms herself into an effective soldier and partisan leader until the war mercifully comes to an end.

The Dressmaker’s Daughter is an unflinching look at the horrors inflicted by the Nazis upon the Romanian Jews during the Holocaust, and one brave young woman’s ability to rise above her suffering and escape to freedom.

Amy Chan Zhou’s searing memoir about growing up in rural Communist China features descriptions of pastoral beauty and tales of the simple joys of raising farm animals or catching fish in a local river. However, her childhood is scarred by the primitive conditions, her family’s everyday struggle to obtain food, and the horror of witnessing relatives being tortured on a stage during “public denouncing” meetings.

As the Communists take control of China in 1949, we follow the harrowing experiences of Chan Zhou’s great-grandparents, grandparents, father, and mother during the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s when landlords, business owners, artists, and scholars were branded as “bad elements” and “class enemies.” As a teenager in the 1970s, while selling vegetables on the black market, Chan Zhou is accused of being a “little capitalist trader.”

The death of Mao ultimately saves Chan Zhou from being sent to a detention center, and her family’s destiny is forever altered by Deng Xiaoping’s reform that allows her family to reunite in Hong Kong, and subsequently emigrate to the United States.

A blend of Wild Swans and The Red Scarf Girl, Flowing with the Pearl River is a vividly accurate portrayal of one family’s painful experiences during Communism and the Cultural Revolution in China, and their eventual escape to freedom.

Bingo!: Forty Years in the NBA is the memoir of legendary Los Angeles Clippers and sports broadcaster Ralph Lawler. Bingo! covers Lawler’s extraordinary life and career, from his childhood in Peoria, Illinois; through his time at Bradley University; to the beginning of his sports announcing career at the Riverside International Raceway; his years spent in Philadelphia with the Flyers, Phillies, and 76ers; his stint in San Diego with the Sails and the Chargers; and culminating in his 40-year career with the Clippers.

Along the way, basketball and the NBA is the focus of the book, with Lawler’s observations and stories about players, coaches, and teams from the 1940s through his retirement at the close of the 2019 season forming the core of the narrative. Included among the myriad stories and reflections are his relationships with NBA legend Bill Walton, infamous Clippers owner Donald Sterling, Clippers GM and NBA great Elgin Baylor, and a variety of famous players, coaches, and fellow broadcasters from throughout the NBA.

As Lawler used to memorably say from behind the microphone, “Fasten your seatbelts!” Bingo! is a fun-filled journey through professional basketball, with plenty of “Oh me, oh my!” moments, including the definitive answer to the burning question all NBA fans want to know: What are the origins of Lawler’s Law?